Hello all! This is my first post, though I come through often while researching hardware purchases. I'm not new to building systems, or modding most all of it to suit me, but I haven't really messed with anything of note in about 4 years. I got a laptop (HP dv9715nr) a few years ago and just kind of stuck with it, even though at times I was hating the slowness for doing certain things. Well the laptops about had it as my daily PC so I'm building a new one. I've been putting this off as long as I can (about 9 months) but I'm tired of waiting, mostly on the laptop. I bought the new case today, so now I've done that, the rest won't take too long to get together, maybe 3 or 4 weeks tops.
I just want to put up what I've decided to buy and see if you guys know of anything better, or if anything I have picked out is a piece of crap.
I'll be purchasing everything over the next few weeks. While I don't have a budget, perse let's call $2000 to $2500 a good mark to shoot for.
System Usage: Mainly HD video files in Win7 Media Center, Some games (I don't have yet since I have a laptop), and a lot of internet surfing. The idea of this PC is a media center PC. I'm going to buy a 32" to 37" TV as the monitor, put a TV card in it to watch satellite on it and use it as a DVR.
This will be an all new system, I'll need everything except Speakers and a mouse.
My preferred website is newegg as I don't have to pay taxes there. and I've priced everything out at newegg.
I'm in the USA.
I don't have a specific brand loyalty overall, I just want well know reputable parts. I'm willing to pay for quality, so long as thats where the extra money is going. I do have an affinity though for OCZ SSD drives and NVIDIA video cards.
Right away, I probably won't mess with overclocking, as no matter what I get it will be massively faster than my laptop, but I can guarantee one day I'll get bored and start playing with it, and soon have it maxed out.
It may have SLI on down the road, but I don't want any extra cards unless I end up needing it, so at least it won't have dual cards right away.
My monitor res. will be 1920x1080 all the time.
With that out of the way, here's the list so far. I have ONLY bought the case so far, since it's the starting point anyway.
CASE - Cooler Master CM690 II Advanced - PN#RC-692-KKN2 - $79.99
PROCESSOR - Intel Core i7-950 - PN#BX80601950 - $289.99
I've been looking at this processor for 6 months or so and I still like it. I'd prefer this over the new SB chips just because they're tried and have the bugs sorted out.
MOBO - ASUS P6X58D-E, has SATA6, RAID, USB3 and Triple-Channel RAM - $234.99
I've been looking through motherboard layouts for a while and This one seems to fit what I want now and may want later.
RAM - (6x2GB) OCZ Gold 12GB 240-Pin, DDR3 1600 - PN#OCZ3G1600LV12GS - $209
I want to fill all the slots, and 12GB should be more than I need, and with this kit they'll be all matched.
VIDEO CARD - EVGA GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB, 320-BIT, GDDR5, PCIe-2.0x16, HDCP - PN#012-P3-1570-AR - $359
PSU - OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W SLI-certified, 80PLUS certified - PN#OCZ700MXSP - $89.99
I want the 700W PSU in case I do get another Video Card.
BOOT DRIVE - Pair of OCZ Vertex 2 40GB drives in a RAID-0 Config. - PN#OCZSSD2-2VTX40G - $229.98 for both
I have a 50GB version of this in my Laptop and I absolutely love it, and won't have another PC with an HDD as a boot drive.
STORAGE DRIVE - 2TB Seagate Barracuda XT, 7200RPM, SATA6, - PN#ST32000641AS - $169.99
I will add more of these 2TB drives as I need them. I already have about 1.2TB of media as I speak.
DVD BURNER - LITE-ON SATA - PN#iHAS124 - $15.99
I'll buy a bluray drive or burner someday when I think I need it.
TV TUNER - Hauppauge Media Center MCE Kit 1128 PCIex1 MPEG-2 Encoder, Media Center Remote, - PN#WinTV-HVR 1850 - $99.99
KEYBOARD - Logitech K800 Black Illuminated Wireless Keyboard. - PN#K800 - $99.99
MOUSE - I already have a Logitech M705 Mouse and I'll be keeping it
SOUND CARD - I may get an audigy later, but I'll wait and see what the ASUS MOBO codec sounds like first.
What the plan is, is for this to be my media center. I want it in the living room by the TV, and all that will be up there is the PC, Satellite Box, TV, and speakers.
I'll watch all my TV and movies on it, and have a wireless keyboard and mouse on the coffee table. And the Media center remote means when I'm not on the internet or something similar, I'll run the thing totally by the remote control like a TV or DVD player.
So this thing needs to do all this and I'm extremely impatient with lag and jerky video. I also don't want to have to wait while navigating through the Media Center menus with the remote control.
I'll be playing games like doom 3 or the star trek flight simulator type games on it at 1920x1080. I would like to never have to change the resolution from 1920x1080. This will be a single monitor setup
Thanks for reading all this guys!
Kenny
I just want to put up what I've decided to buy and see if you guys know of anything better, or if anything I have picked out is a piece of crap.
I'll be purchasing everything over the next few weeks. While I don't have a budget, perse let's call $2000 to $2500 a good mark to shoot for.
System Usage: Mainly HD video files in Win7 Media Center, Some games (I don't have yet since I have a laptop), and a lot of internet surfing. The idea of this PC is a media center PC. I'm going to buy a 32" to 37" TV as the monitor, put a TV card in it to watch satellite on it and use it as a DVR.
This will be an all new system, I'll need everything except Speakers and a mouse.
My preferred website is newegg as I don't have to pay taxes there. and I've priced everything out at newegg.
I'm in the USA.
I don't have a specific brand loyalty overall, I just want well know reputable parts. I'm willing to pay for quality, so long as thats where the extra money is going. I do have an affinity though for OCZ SSD drives and NVIDIA video cards.
Right away, I probably won't mess with overclocking, as no matter what I get it will be massively faster than my laptop, but I can guarantee one day I'll get bored and start playing with it, and soon have it maxed out.
It may have SLI on down the road, but I don't want any extra cards unless I end up needing it, so at least it won't have dual cards right away.
My monitor res. will be 1920x1080 all the time.
With that out of the way, here's the list so far. I have ONLY bought the case so far, since it's the starting point anyway.
CASE - Cooler Master CM690 II Advanced - PN#RC-692-KKN2 - $79.99
PROCESSOR - Intel Core i7-950 - PN#BX80601950 - $289.99
I've been looking at this processor for 6 months or so and I still like it. I'd prefer this over the new SB chips just because they're tried and have the bugs sorted out.
MOBO - ASUS P6X58D-E, has SATA6, RAID, USB3 and Triple-Channel RAM - $234.99
I've been looking through motherboard layouts for a while and This one seems to fit what I want now and may want later.
RAM - (6x2GB) OCZ Gold 12GB 240-Pin, DDR3 1600 - PN#OCZ3G1600LV12GS - $209
I want to fill all the slots, and 12GB should be more than I need, and with this kit they'll be all matched.
VIDEO CARD - EVGA GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB, 320-BIT, GDDR5, PCIe-2.0x16, HDCP - PN#012-P3-1570-AR - $359
PSU - OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W SLI-certified, 80PLUS certified - PN#OCZ700MXSP - $89.99
I want the 700W PSU in case I do get another Video Card.
BOOT DRIVE - Pair of OCZ Vertex 2 40GB drives in a RAID-0 Config. - PN#OCZSSD2-2VTX40G - $229.98 for both
I have a 50GB version of this in my Laptop and I absolutely love it, and won't have another PC with an HDD as a boot drive.
STORAGE DRIVE - 2TB Seagate Barracuda XT, 7200RPM, SATA6, - PN#ST32000641AS - $169.99
I will add more of these 2TB drives as I need them. I already have about 1.2TB of media as I speak.
DVD BURNER - LITE-ON SATA - PN#iHAS124 - $15.99
I'll buy a bluray drive or burner someday when I think I need it.
TV TUNER - Hauppauge Media Center MCE Kit 1128 PCIex1 MPEG-2 Encoder, Media Center Remote, - PN#WinTV-HVR 1850 - $99.99
KEYBOARD - Logitech K800 Black Illuminated Wireless Keyboard. - PN#K800 - $99.99
MOUSE - I already have a Logitech M705 Mouse and I'll be keeping it
SOUND CARD - I may get an audigy later, but I'll wait and see what the ASUS MOBO codec sounds like first.
What the plan is, is for this to be my media center. I want it in the living room by the TV, and all that will be up there is the PC, Satellite Box, TV, and speakers.
I'll watch all my TV and movies on it, and have a wireless keyboard and mouse on the coffee table. And the Media center remote means when I'm not on the internet or something similar, I'll run the thing totally by the remote control like a TV or DVD player.
So this thing needs to do all this and I'm extremely impatient with lag and jerky video. I also don't want to have to wait while navigating through the Media Center menus with the remote control.
I'll be playing games like doom 3 or the star trek flight simulator type games on it at 1920x1080. I would like to never have to change the resolution from 1920x1080. This will be a single monitor setup
Thanks for reading all this guys!
Kenny